scholarly journals Disentangling dimensions of animacy in human brain and behaviour

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamila M Jozwik ◽  
Elias Najarro ◽  
Jasper JF van den Bosch ◽  
Ian Charest ◽  
Nikolaus Kriegeskorte ◽  
...  

The perception of animate things is of great behavioural importance to humans. Despite the prominence of the distinct brain and behavioural responses to animate and inanimate things, however, it remains unclear which of several commonly entangled properties underlie these observations. Here, we investigate the importance of five dimensions of animacy: being alive, looking like an animal, having agency, having mobility, and being unpredictable in brain (fMRI, EEG) and behaviour (property and similarity judgments) of 19 subjects using a stimulus set of 128 images that disentangles the five dimensions (optimized by a genetic algorithm). Our results reveal a differential pattern across brain and behaviour. The living/non-living distinction (being alive) was prominent in judgments, but despite its prominence in neuroscience literature, did not explain variance in brain representations. The other dimensions of animacy explained variance in both brain and behaviour. The having agency dimension explained more variance in higher-level visual areas, consistent with higher cognitive contributions. The being unpredictable dimension instead captured representations in both lower and higher-level visual cortex, possibly because unpredictable things require attention. Animacy is multidimensional and our results show that distinct dimensions are differentially represented in human brain and behaviour.

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 3813-3826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce D. Keefe ◽  
André D. Gouws ◽  
Aislin A. Sheldon ◽  
Richard J. W. Vernon ◽  
Samuel J. D. Lawrence ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
John F. McGrew

This paper discusses a case study of a design and evaluation of a change management system at a large Telecommunications Corporation. The design and evaluation were done using the facilitated genetic algorithm (a parallel design method) and user decision style analysis. During the facilitated genetic algorithm the design team followed the procedure of the genetic algorithm. Usability was evaluated by applying user decision style analysis to the designed system. The design is compared with an existing system and with one designed by an analyst. The change management system designed by the facilitated genetic algorithm took less time to design and decision style analysis indicated it would be easier to use than the other two systems.


Author(s):  
Asieh Khosravanian ◽  
Mohammad Rahmanimanesh ◽  
Parviz Keshavarzi

The Social Spider Algorithm (SSA) was introduced based on the information-sharing foraging strategy of spiders to solve the continuous optimization problems. SSA was shown to have better performance than the other state-of-the-art meta-heuristic algorithms in terms of best-achieved fitness values, scalability, reliability, and convergence speed. By preserving all strengths and outstanding performance of SSA, we propose a novel algorithm named Discrete Social Spider Algorithm (DSSA), for solving discrete optimization problems by making some modifications to the calculation of distance function, construction of follow position, the movement method, and the fitness function of the original SSA. DSSA is employed to solve the symmetric and asymmetric traveling salesman problems. To prove the effectiveness of DSSA, TSPLIB benchmarks are used, and the results have been compared to the results obtained by six different optimization methods: discrete bat algorithm (IBA), genetic algorithm (GA), an island-based distributed genetic algorithm (IDGA), evolutionary simulated annealing (ESA), discrete imperialist competitive algorithm (DICA) and a discrete firefly algorithm (DFA). The simulation results demonstrate that DSSA outperforms the other techniques. The experimental results show that our method is better than other evolutionary algorithms for solving the TSP problems. DSSA can also be used for any other discrete optimization problem, such as routing problems.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Nerdrum ◽  
Amy Østertun Geirdal

In this study, we present longitudinal data on psychological distress among 169 young Norwegian health professionals. Psychological distress was measured at the end of their studies, and three years later on, when being professional nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Psychological distress was assessed by applying the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 12). Twenty-seven percent of the nursing students scored higher than the GHQ 12 case score at the end of the study, but as nurses, they became significantly less distressed three years later (13 percent). The other two professions showed relatively small and non-significant reductions in psychological distress during the first three years as a professional. Hierarchical multiple analyses showed that the level of psychological distress when finishing the study, the young professionals’ experience of personal support from colleagues, the experience of work-home conflicts and the experience of methodological coping at work were significant predictors of psychological distress three years after working as young health professionals. These four predictors explained together 29 percent in the variance in GHQ 12 three years after graduation. Belonging to any of the three professions did not contribute to the explained variance in psychological distress three years after graduation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 163-167 ◽  
pp. 2365-2368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Ling Qiao ◽  
Zhi Jun Han

In this paper, determinate beam and indeterminate beam with multiple span are optimized by using genetic algorithm, the mathematic model of optimize beam is built and the processing method of constraint conditions is given. The examples show that the algorithm could be used for optimizing determinate structure, and also optimizing indeterminate structure. Compared to the linear approximation method, genetic algorithm has advantages of being simple, easy, fast convergence and has no use for changing the objective function and constraint conditions to linearity or other processing. Its results agree with linear approximation method’s. It is the other method that can be adopt in engineering field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1484-1496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afshin Mansouri ◽  
Babak Aminnejad ◽  
Hassan Ahmadi

Abstract In the current study, modified version of the penguins search optimization algorithm (PeSOA) was introduced, and its usage was assessed in the water resources field. In the modified version (MPeSOA), the Gaussian exploration was added to the algorithm. The MPeSOA performance was evaluated in optimal operation of a hypothetical four-reservoir system and Karun-4 reservoir as a real world problem. Also, genetic algorithm (GA) was used as a criterion for evaluating the performance of PeSOA and MPeSOA. The results revealed that in a four-reservoir system problem, the PeSOA performance was much weaker than the GA; but on the other hand, the MPeSOA had better performance than the GA. In the mentioned problem, PeSOA, GA, and MPeSOA reached 78.43, 97.46, and 98.30% of the global optimum, respectively. In the operation of Karun-4 reservoir, although PeSOA performance had less difference with the two other algorithms than four-reservoir problem, its performance was not acceptable. The average values of objective function in this case were equal to 26.49, 23.84, and 21.48 for PeSOA, GA, and MPeSOA, respectively. According to the results obtained in the operation of Karun-4 reservoir, the algorithms including MPeSOA, GA, and PeSOA were situated in ranks one to three in terms of efficiency, respectively.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-373
Author(s):  
Lauren Strachan ◽  
Sara Kennedy ◽  
Pavel Trofimovich

Abstract This study investigated whether second language (L2) speakers are aware of and can manipulate aspects of their speech contributing to comprehensibility. Forty Mandarin speakers of L2 English performed two versions of the same oral task. Before the second task, half of the speakers were asked to make their speech as easy for the interlocutor to understand as possible, while the other half received no additional prompt. Speakers self-assessed comprehensibility after each task and were interviewed about how they improved their comprehensibility. Native-speaking listeners evaluated speaker performances for five dimensions, rating speech similarly across groups and tasks. Overall, participants did not become more comprehensible from task 1 to task 2, whether prompted or not, nor did speakers’ self-assessments become more in line with raters’, indicating speakers may not be aware of their own comprehensibility. However, speakers who did demonstrate greater improvement in comprehensibility received higher ratings of flow, and speakers’ self-ratings of comprehensibility were aligned with listeners’ assessments only in the second task. When discussing comprehensibility, speakers commented more on task content than linguistic dimensions. Results highlight the roles of task repetition and self-assessment in speakers’ awareness of comprehensibility.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gargi Bhattacharjee ◽  
Sudipta Dash

Software testing is regarded as a pivotal approach to realize a high reliable product. To check for the correctness of results, we require appropriate test cases. UML models are largely used to depict the specifications for software development. Test cases are created independently and based on the sequence of occurrence in the diagrams; they lead to corresponding test paths in the program. In this paper, we have analyzed an activity diagram, consisting of concurrent activities, for generating test paths. The obtained test paths are therefore required to be ranked. We have demonstrated that it is conceivable to apply Genetic Algorithm procedures alongside Ant Colony Optimization technique for not only finding the most critical path but also prioritizing the other paths too for enhancing the effectiveness of software testing.


2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (8) ◽  
pp. 1104-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.Y. May ◽  
A.J. Mercier

Previous work has shown that the reflection from aquarium walls can modify several aspects of crayfish behaviour, but only if the crayfish are socialized. Such socialization is known to generate a dominance hierarchy composed of dominant and subordinate animals. The present study was conducted to determine whether or not behavioural responses to reflection depend on dominance status. Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852) were maintained in pairs for 2 weeks to establish dominance ranks and were subsequently observed in an aquarium in which half of the walls were lined with mirrors and the other half were lined with nonreflective plastic. Dominant crayfish spent more time on the reflective side of the aquarium than on the nonreflective side, and they spent more time in reflective corners than in nonreflective corners. Dominant crayfish also turned more frequently on the reflective side and crossed the tank more frequently toward reflective walls. Such differences in behaviour were not observed for subordinate crayfish or for crayfish that had been isolated for 2 weeks. Subordinate crayfish exhibited more reverse walking on the reflective side of the aquarium than on the nonreflective side, but crayfish in the other groups did not. Thus, responses of crayfish to reflection depend on dominance status.


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